The Leeds Corporation Strike in 1913

Abstract

Agreat deal of attention has very properly been focused on the lock-out of the Leeds gasworkers in 1890 as a landmark in the development of the ‘new unionism’.1 The Leeds municipal strike of 1913, with the gasworkers again as its spearhead, was another local dispute which assumed national importance. It was, in a sense, the logical outcome of the events of 1890, but developments both in the labour movement and in society at large had been rapid since 1890 with the result that the dispute of 1913 posed new problems, more familiar to the trade unionist of today than those which faced the gasworkers in 1890.

Keywords

Collective Bargaining City Council Wage Increase General Labourer Special Committee